Egypt’s Uprising Sparked Startup Revolution

CAIRO—Even if you had planned it, you couldn’t have asked for a better illustration of the Egyptian startup scene. The recent Rise Up Egypt conference here in the capital was held just down the road from Tahrir Square, center of so much of the city’s recent turbulence. On the two days of the conference, the military had taken to the streets. Each of the roads into the square was blocked off by a row of armored vehicles, mounted with heavy machine guns.

So what did the thousand people, mainly young entrepreneurs, attending the conference do? They found ways around the obstacles. If one street was blocked, you tried another one, and another, and another. Eventually, you found a way through. It was slower than the direct route, it was harder, and it took longer, but there was a way. It was a perfect metaphor for startup life in Egypt.

Young Cairenes are redirecting the spirit that was released in the square a few hundred meters away in the Jan. 25, 2011, revolution. “A lot of people who were focused on ways to express their anger [then] are now rechanneling that into other things—entrepreneurship and social projects,” said Ahmed El Alfi, founder and chairman of Sawari Ventures, a Cairo-based venture-capital firm. “They are capturing that newly acquired perception of increased power and abilities as an individual as well as a group, and trying to channel it into things where they may see more tangible returns.”